[marshray]

I liked it better than the first one.

(1) It's not just trolls that are dragging us all down with patents.

(2) Eliminate patents, starting with the software ones.

(3) The President doesn't vote on the federal budget either, but it's not correct to say he doesn't have a role in it. In this case the USPTO is under the Executive Branch, so actually, I would think the President would have a lot of authority in the matter.

[dlikhten]

(1) Trolls are definitely a problem, but so is apple, MS, and Oracle. Hell we saw what happens when Samsung got pissed off, they decided to start suing for patents the world needs to implement cell phones. Samsung may have failed, but MS may not.

(2) Patents are good, as long as they are NON-OBVIOUS. In the realm of software, a lot of things are obvious. In fact most of what is patented is obvious. The problem is that its non-obvious until an engineer needs to solve it, then it will become obvious as it is on the path to the solution. Software patent problem: SOFTWARE IS ALGORITHMS; MATH! You cannot patent equations. We have lots of proof that software is just an equation, though more complex and in a different form. Hell implement it in Lisp and you have lambda calculus. That's the point.

Software is mathematics. End of story. Cannot be patented.

(3) President is not in full power, but not powerless either. He can put pressure via the citizens.

[marshray]

we saw what happens when Samsung got pissed off, they decided to start suing for patents the world needs to implement cell phones

Wasn't it Apple that fired the first shot there?